‘We want this nightmare to be over,’ grieving family says at teen murderer’s sentencing hearing

The boy in the prisoner’s box looked out of place at his sentencing hearing on Wednesday for the Dec. 23, 2017 murder of Keith Fitzsimmons, a grandfather who was shot in the back in a random gunpoint robbery on the streets of Vanier.Young, no criminal record, bookish glasses and with two parents who did their best against their son’s storm of addiction and anger. (The boy has refused treatment and his parents’ help.)The teen, whose identity is shielded by law, has long sought disturbing thrills from crime. It started with stealing from his parents, then armed robbery and finally murder.Just 15 at the time, the boy bought a sawed-off rifle. He said he needed it for protection as a gang enforcer. However, as assistant Crown attorney Jon Fuller told the hearing Wednesday, it was also part of getting “a rush” from robbing someone.The boy with the gun first set out to hold up a corner store, but it was closed so he went back to his buddy’s apartment on Jolliet Avenue, where they had spent the night doing cocaine and playing video games. Then he saw 49-year-old Fitzsimmons walking down the street with a friend who had hoped to borrow some Gravol from a neighbour. It was 2:30 a.m. when the boy, masked and armed, came up from behind and threatened to shoot them if they didn’t hand over their money. Fitzsimmons was shot in the back, with the bullet lodging in his heart.The boy ran off and left Fitzsimmons to die on the sidewalk, and when police caught up with him hours later, he lied. He said he had nothing to do with it and hadn’t been out.The boy pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in October and at his sentencing hearing court heard a moving victim-impact statement from Fitzsimmons’s ex-wife: “His death has left a gaping hole in our family,” Diane Lalande Fitzsimmons told court.She misses his advice.“Our family is growing, but it is missing its patriarch,” she said.Most of all, she told court that the delays in sentencing have been painful, and more than anything, she said, “We want this nightmare to be over so Keith can rest in peace.”The prosecutor wants the youth to be sentenced as an adult and asked Ontario Superior Court Justice Lynn Ratushny to consider the cold facts of the case that had a 15-year-old buying a gun and ammo as a gang enforcer who got a rush from robbing people and ended up killing an innocent victim who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.Fuller told court the shooting was intentional.“There’s only one reason to load a gun,” the prosecutor said.The prosecutor noted that the boy was comfortable with handling the gun, showing a cellphone video of the young killer wiping it down in his bedroom a few days before the murder.The boy remains in youth jail awaiting sentencing. Court heard that he’s had problems keeping his temper in check and once threatened to stab another inmate in the throat, and was also caught trying to buy weed at the youth jail.gdimmock@postmedia.comTwitter: @crimegarden ALSO IN THE NEWS:Four-year-old found safe in Renfrew CountyMontsion trial: Eyewitness watched Abdi’s arrest, texted details to friendChurch treasurer found guilty of four-year, $600,000 fraud